Enzyme discovery and engineering for sustainable plastic recycling
Open accessAbstract
The drastically increasing amount of plastic waste is causing an environmental crisis that requires innovative technologies for recycling post-consumer plastics to achieve waste valorization while meeting environmental quality goals. Biocatalytic depolymerization mediated by enzymes has emerged as an efficient and sustainable alternative for plastic treatment and recycling. A variety of plastic-degrading enzymes have been discovered from microbial sources. Meanwhile, protein engineering has been exploited to modify and optimize plastic-degrading enzymes. This review highlights the recent trends and up-to-date advances in mining novel plastic-degrading enzymes through state-of-the-art omics-based techniques and improving the enzyme catalytic efficiency and stability via various protein engineering strategies. Future research prospects and challenges are also discussed.
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- Authors
- Zhu, B., Wang, D., & Wei, N.
- Affiliations
- University of Notre Dame (US)
- Corresponding author
- Wei, Na
- Venue
- Trends in Biotechnology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-01
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 22-37
- ISSN
- 0167-7799 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3133670132
- Cited by
- 366
- References
- 6
- Citations by year
- 2026: 57 · 2025: 97 · 2024: 79 · 2023: 79 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 6
- FWCI
- 5.71
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Trends in biotechnology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (CBET-1653679)
- National Science Foundation Directorate for Engineering
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biotechnology › Enzyme Production and Characterization
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Enzyme Catalysis and Immobilization
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Enzyme-mediated dye degradation
- Keywords
- plastic recycling, plastic-degrading enzymes, enzyme discovery, protein engineering, plastic waste, microbial enzymes, enzyme stability, catalytic efficiency
- MeSH terms
- Plastics, Protein Engineering, Biocatalysis, Recycling
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